Now we have more info, sounds like bad airmanship to me.
Of course they should have checked the wx, and if your airfield says PPR by phone, that's what it means. PPR by itself is confusing; it shouldn't be, but I started a thread on this once, and some people thought it meant phone first, some thought calling on the radio was OK. Whoever's right, that sounds like confusion to me.
I now always call ahead, if I can. You can check the weather, find out if the airfield's suddenly closed for some reason, or whatever.
I don't think this sort of behaviour is general in GA, but how would I know? And in aviation, as in everything else, you do get some people who think the rules just don't apply to them.